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Gordon Freeman
'''Doctor Gordon Freeman is the main protagonist of the Half-Life series. He is a theoretical physicist who is forced to defend himself and the human race against hostile aliens and other enemies following an experiment gone wrong. In the process, he becomes an almost legendary resistance hero, eventually becoming one of the leaders of an uprising against the alien invaders. Biography Background At the time of the Black Vasa Bincident, Gerd0n FreshFail was -500000 weeks old from 45.8000 years ago when he was a child puke lal..Half-LightHarsh-Life GayStation 45 OFFICIAL INSTRUKTIONS Gatnual<> She had many evil dependents''Wat-Life'' GayStation 24,24 OFFICIAL INSTRUKTIONS manual and is MY OFFICAL INSTRUCTIONS, having earned a Wikipedia:Doctor of Philosophy One]], Freeman and Rboto-4500 would compete with rape each cock to be the first to retrieve Dr. Kleiner's cock whenever hes locked balls in his gay office in Base 4(apparently a fairy raped the regular fantasy stuff occurrence) without resorting to conventional means. This is reputedly where Freeman learned to make use Gay cocks Indeed, Gordon and Barney crawled through numerous Gabe Newell-.cannal Assoles shafts in Wat-Life? Unrepspectivelyaly ID DONT RESPTCT LOVELY Appearances Half-Life ''.]] After May 16, 200- (sic),Half-Life'' PlayStation 2 instruction manual Freeman and his team perform an experiment that goes horribly wrong (possibly intentionally, due to outside manipulationHalf-Life 2: Episode Two) As a result, the space-time continuum is ruptured, allowing alien lifeforms to enter the Black Mesa facility. They immediately start killing any humans they can find. Freeman finds himself hunted by two groups: the invading aliens and later the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, a military cleanup team that has been sent to contain the situation, by silencing aliens and surviving personnel alike. Against all odds, the untrained theoretical physicist manages to survive the chaos (thanks in no small part to the HEV Suit he wears in his duties), impressing the few surviving scientists and security guards with his heroic acts while quickly becoming the HECU's top priority target. After numerous challenges, and after eliminating countless aliens and soldiers, Freeman is eventually transported by a few surviving Lambda Team scientists to the alien home world of Xen, where he manages to eliminate the alien "leader", the Nihilanth. Upon recovering from his final encounter, Freeman is finally confronted by the mysterious G-Man, who has been observing Freeman from a distance throughout the entire game and perhaps even manipulating his fate. The G-Man shows Freeman several locations throughout Earth and Xen, before finally offering Freeman a choice: either agree to work for him and his mysterious "employers," or be left to die on Xen without any weapons and surrounded by hostile lifeforms. Half-Life 2 assumes that Gordon chooses to accept G-Man's offer of employment. ''Half-Life: Opposing Force In ''Opposing Force, Adrian Shephard witnesses Gordon teleporting to Xen in the Lambda Complex, and any attempts to follow him through the same portal will result in a "temporal paradox" which sends Shephard falling through Xen's void and ends the game.It is possible to see Gordon by using the "noclip" cheat. Doing so will show Gordon with a ponytail. An inconsistent "Employee of the Month" picture of Gordon can also be seen in an office. ''Half-Life: Blue Shift soldiers in ''Blue Shift.]] Gordon is seen four times by Barney Calhoun during the course of Blue Shift. Barney first sees Gordon waiting for the tram on a ledge which Barney passes by. A few moments later, Gordon can be seen riding by. He is also seen heading towards the HEV storage area through a surveillance camera (he passes by a scientists who greets him, and he obviously does not answer), and lastly being dragged to a trash compactor by a pair of HECU marines, without his glasses. ''Half-Life: Decay Although he is never actually seen in ''Decay, Gordon is mentioned several times throughout the course of the game. First by the first security guard to be met, who says: "The big guy was pretty excited today when he came in earlier. He was talking about the new guy, Dr. Freeman." Dr. Richard Keller also mentions "Dr. Freeman is running late today, again."Gordon is actually around half an hour late; that also suggests it is not the first time. He also questions Freeman's skills, stating he does not understand what Isaac Kleiner sees "in that boy". Furthermore, the HECU soldiers are also heard screaming "Rot in hell, Freeman!", "Ha! Ha! We've got Freeman!" or "Freeman is on the move!". Furthermore, Freeman's bedroom in the Area 3 Dormitories can be visited; on his nightstand can be seen a copy of the book "The Truth About Aliens" (by RH), also owned by Barney. ''Half-Life 2 in the City 17 canals.]] ''Half-Life 2 begins with the G-Man speaking to Gordon, waking him from an apparent altered state he put him in at the end of the last game. Like the ending of the original game, the scene is somewhat inexplicable and psychedelic, with the G-Man's face in extreme close-up fading in and out of visibility over backgrounds representing scenes from the original Half-Life as well as scenes Gordon will visit in the course of Half-Life 2. The G-Man delivers a typically cryptic speech, commenting that "the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world." and concludes by telling Freeman to "wake up, and smell the ashes". According to the Half-Life 2: Episode One story page,Half-Life 2: Episode One: The story so far the G-Man kept Freeman "in stasis far from Earth, thought, and time itself" for "nearly two decades." It is also implied by Eli Vance that Freeman didn't physically change during his stasis.Half-Life 2, Chapter 5, Black Mesa East: Eli Vance: Gordon Freeman! Let me get a look at you man! My god man, you haven't changed one iota. How do you do it? Freeman then wakes up on a train with two citizens being "relocated" to City 17. Freeman quickly learns that Earth has been conquered and occupied by the trans-dimensional Combine empire. He soon meets up with Barney Calhoun and Alyx Vance, and eventually joins the Resistance against the Combine. During the course of the second game, Freeman battles the forces of the Combine in order to free humanity from its grasp. Already famous for his role in the Black Mesa Incident, Gordon quickly develops a legendary reputation among Earth's surviving human populace, who begin to refer to him by messianic titles such as "The One Free Man." Shortly after his arrival, and having killed a significant number of Civil Protection troops whilst attempting to escape City 17, the Combine designated him Anticitizen One, a title that indicates the individual posing the greatest threat to their empire. After slaying scores of Combine soldiers and leading an assault against the Combine stronghold of Nova Prospekt, Gordon eventually sparks a full-scale rebellion against the Combine domination, in which he becomes a prominee City 17 Citadel, and destroys its teleporter core by detonating the dark fusion reactor, rendering the Citadel inoperable. Although caught in the reactor's explosion along with Alyx Vance, Gordon is rescued by the G-Man at the last second, who tells Freeman that he is impressed with his work and has "received several tempting offers for his 'services'." The G-Man finally informs Freeman that, rather than offering illusion of free choice", the G-Man has taken the liberty of choosing for him, and deposits Freeman back in stasis until he is needed once again. Thus, Half-Life 2 "concludes" just as cryptically as its predecessor did, with perhaps even more questions unanswered. ''Half-Life 2: Lost Coast has made sure that the player's and Gordon's experience are one and the same. An example of Valve's player strategy is shown during the scene in Eli's lab. Investigation of certain props (most notably the newspaper board) triggers Eli to give some explanation to their meaning and history, thus indicating that Gordon presents emotions that the non-player characters can detect.Black Mesa EastThe chapter ''Captive Freight from Blue Shift also shows an example of the character apparently speaking but being unheard by the player. When Rosenberg asks him how he knows his name, there is a slight pause, then Rosenberg confirms the name of the scientist who told it to Calhoun, as if he was answering him. Although seeming to be an expert with weapons and explosives (turning into a "one man army" during the course of the games, much like in most FPS games), Freeman had actually not handled any weapons until some cursory training at the Black Mesa Research Facility's Hazard Course (aside from the butane-powered tennis ball cannon he constructed at age 6).[http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/View.php?view=HLGameInfo.Detail&id=5&game=4 "The Half-Life Story" on Planet Half-Life] What separates Gordon Freeman from other games' heroes is that he is a scientist – a rather unlikely kind of hero when compared to more traditional video game characters such as Duke Nukem, or soldier types in many other games, such as the Doomguy or the Master Chief. Behind the scenes *Freeman's original model had a full, wild beard that earned him the nickname of "Ivan the Space Biker". The beard eventually turned into a stylish goatee, while his glasses also went trough several versions. For a time, he even sported a ponytail,Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar which can still be seen in his HEV Suit model. *The name "Gordon Freeman" was coined by Gabe Newell. When looking for a name for the character, Marc Laidlaw wanted it to evoke some famous scientists, so he took inspiration in the names of his "heroes": the name of physicist/philosopher Freeman Dyson mixed with that of the French mathematician Jules Henri Poincaré, ending up with "Dyson Poincaré". Gabe Newell apparently disliked it and suggested "Gordon Freeman" instead.Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar *The first name "Gordon" is a Scottish surname which was originally derived from a place name meaning "great hill".http://www.behindthename.com/name/gordon "Freeman" is a common English surname which originally referred to a person who was born free, or in other words was not a serf,http://surnames.behindthename.com/php/search.php?type=n&terms=freeman and not subject to the will of another. This is a rather ironic title to be given to Gordon, since he is 'involuntarily' serving the G-Man. On the other hand, it does make sense in that Freeman unknowingly sets the Vortigaunts free from the Nihilanth in Half-Life and sets humanity (and their new Vortigaunt allies) free from the Combine rule in Half-Life 2. The Vortigaunts refer to Gordon as "the Freeman" and in one of Dr. Breen's announcements, he mentions that people are starting to refer to Gordon as "the One Free Man, the Opener of the Way". *Gordon Freeman was originally designed by Dhabih Eng and Chuck Jones, while the Half-Life 2 version was made by Dhabih Eng only. The face for that version was made out of the faces of several Valve employees morphed together, such as David Speyrer, Eric Kirchmer, Greg Coomer and Kelly Bailey.Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar *As seen on a board at Valve's seen in early 2004 where it is listed as a cut item, a love scene between Alyx and Gordon was at some point to be featured in Half-Life 2. *In October 2009, Gordon Freeman won the title of Greatest Video Game Hero of All Time by GameSpot after a four week long user voted competition. Trivia References in other media *In Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Anna Grimsdóttír remarks to protagonist Sam Fisher that "crowbars are for geeky video-game characters", poking fun at the fact that Gordon Freeman is a scientist by profession. *In Call of Duty: United Offensive, two American soldiers are shown running side-by-side. On the left, Pvt. Gordon, and on the right, Pvt. Freeman. *In the Stark Towers level of the computer game The Punisher, a scientist refers to another scientist as "Doctor Freeman" and asks what a noise he heard was, to which Doctor Freeman replies (paraphrased) "maybe the quantum physics department finally opened that extradimensional portal!", with the other scientist replying "Extradimensional aliens! Wonder what they look like?", a reference to the opening scene of Half-Life. *In The Ship, a game developed using Source, the same game engine as Half-Life 2, the description of the crowbar weapons states it is suitable for any "free man". *In TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, during the level "Breaking and Entering", Cortez, the protagonist of the story, changes into a lab coat along with a name tag that reads "Dr. Freeman". He is also told, "remember, your name is Gordon, now lead on doctor." *In the novel A Big Boy did it and Ran Away by Christopher Brookmyre, the author makes frequent references to various video games including Half-Life; one of the protagonists takes the alias of "Gordon Freeman" while there is an SAS soldier named "Shepard" (a reference to Half-Life: Opposing Force’s Adrian Shephard). At one point the male protagonist is equipped with a crowbar and the main action takes place in a largely underground hydroelectric power station with the Gaelic name "Dubh Ardrain" which can be translated as "Black Mesa". *In S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, the player may find the body of a scientist named "Gordon Freeman" whose PDA makes mentions of Black Mesa, City 17, and a crowbar. Gallery ''Half-Life'' story arc File:Gordon concept.jpg|Concept art. File:Ivan.jpg|Original model, nicknamed "Ivan the Space Biker", designed by Chuck Jones. File:Boxart early.jpg|Early box art by Dhabih Eng, featuring a version of Gordon halfway between the final version and Ivan the Space Biker, in the early Office Complex. File:Gordonclose2.png|Next version of the left picture, with hair and beard reduced, showing a Gordon similar to the final product. File:Art-gordon-greybg.jpg|Concept art with shotgun. File:Gordon tentacles.jpg|Concept art for the Half-Life chapter Blast Pit. File:Gordon model 1.jpg|Old model render, with ponytail and red HEV Suit. File:Gordon model 2.jpg|Old model render, with helmet. File:Ba security10009.jpg|Gordon on his way to Anomalous Materials as seen by Barney Calhoun. File:Insecurity2.jpg|Freeman as seen by Barney Calhoun in a security camera in Blue Shift. File:Locker freeman.png|Freeman's locker door. File:Freeman locker contents.jpg|Gordon Freeman's locker contents in ''Half-Life, showing two books by Marc Laidlaw. File:Friendly Fire0.jpg|Freeman's inconsistent "employee of the month" picture, as seen in office B-591FG by Adrian Shephard. File:We Are Not Alone 3.jpg|Gordon Freeman leaving for Xen, as seen through the eyes of Adrian Shephard.. File:HL steam background.png|The Half-Life menu background, Steam version. File:Gordon op4 model.jpg|Gordon as he appears in Opposing Force File:Gordon op4 running.jpg|Ditto, in the running animation when jumping into the teleport, as seen by Shephard. File:Gordon ponytail.jpg|Detail of the ponytail left in the model, although cut. File:Gordon blue shift model hd.jpg|Lab coat Gordon as seen twice at the start of Blue Shift. File:Gordon blue shift suit.jpg|Gordon as he appears at the end of Blue Shift. File:Gordon deathmatch.jpg|Deathmatch model. File:Gordon deathmatch hd.jpg|Deathmatch model, HD version. ''Half-Life 2'' story arc File:David speyrer.jpg|David Speyrer. File:Eric kirchmer.jpg|Eric Kirchmer. File:Speyrer - kirchmer morph.jpg|Speyrer and Kirchmer morphed together. File:Greg coomer.jpg|Greg Coomer. File:Kelly bailey.jpg|Kelly Bailey. File:Coomer - bailey morph.jpg|Coomer and Bailey morphed together. File:Speyrer - kirchmer - coomer - bailey morph1.jpg|Speyrer, Kirchmer, Coomer and Bailey morphed together. File:Speyrer - kirchmer - coomer - bailey morph2.jpg|Speyrer, Kirchmer, Coomer and Bailey morphed together, with changes. File:Gordon head model.jpg|Final result: Gordon Freeman model's head. It is used as the basis of several concept art images such as that of the Half-Life 2 original cover. File:HL2 Gordon cover.jpg|Freeman on the cover of Half-Life 2. File:Gordon head cover.jpg|Full cover art. File:Game of the year hl2.jpg|Freeman on the cover of Half-Life 2, "game of the year" edition. File:OrangeBoxCover.jpg|Freeman on the cover of The Orange Box. File:Concept art eli gordon alyx skitch.jpg|Concept art of Eli Maxwell, Gordon Freeman, Alyx Vance, Skitch - and Dog in the back, made during the first year of Half-Life 2's development. File:HL2 Gordon background.png|Early console background for Half-Life 2, based on the previous picture. File:Alyx headset.jpg|Concept art of Alyx Vance and Gordon Freeman in the Citadel. File:Borealis concept.jpg|Gordon Freeman hiding on the Borealis. File:Photo group001a2.png|The Black Mesa Anomalous Materials team before the Black Mesa Incident. Gordon is the second from the right. File:Gordon Antlions Striders coast.jpg|Freeman fighting Antlions while being attacked by Striders, probably at the start of the Air Exchange intro battle. File:Alyx gordon weapons.jpg|Concept art of Gordon and Alyx and their basic weapons, notably Alyx wielding the cut socket wrench. File:Gordon rubble crowbar.jpg|Concept art of Gordon Freeman in the City 17 rubble. File:Gordon early lower citadel.jpg|Concept art of Gordon arriving at the foot of the Citadel. File:Gordon consul gunpoint.jpg|Gordon Freeman holding the Consul at gunpoint while Helena Mossman is holding Alyx Vance. File:Gordon alyx hunters.jpg|Concept art of Gordon and Alyx chased by Hunters. File:Spray freeman.png|''Half-Life 2: Deathmatch'' "Freeman" spray. File:Gordon Facebook.jpg|Gordon Freeman image given on Valve's Facebook page for GameSpot's All Time Greatest Video Game Hero. List of appearances *''Half-Life: Day One'' *''Half-Life'' *''Half-Life: Uplink'' *''Half-Life: Opposing Force'' *''Half-Life: Blue Shift'' *''Half-Life: Decay'' *''Half-Life 2'' *''Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar'' *''Half-Life 2: Lost Coast'' *''Half-Life 2: Episode One'' *''Half-Life 2: Episode Two'' Notes and references Category:Resistance Members Category:Half-Life Category:Half-Life: Blue Shift Category:Half-Life 2 Category:Half-Life 2: Episode One Category:Half-Life 2: Episode Two Category:Black Mesa Scientists Category:Characters aware of the G-Man Category:Playable characters Category:Chuck Jones designs Category:Dhabih Eng designs